1039 Shadow Play

"Steamed Bun Invasion! Strangle! Happy is focusing their attacks! One wave rush! Beautiful!!!"　　

With a fierce battle ongoing, there was no time for the commentators to give any lengthy explanations or play-by-plays. Pan Lin ended up using short and hurried keywords, which helped make the intensity of the match even more clear.　

"Happy... The first kill goes to Happy!!!" He stumbled a bit on this result. Pan Lin wanted to shout that Happy had taken the first point, but he thought about it again and remembered that wasn't how the point system worked anymore! Killing the opponent didn't count as a point. The number of points won depended on how many of your players were left standing at the end of the match. The two methods of calculating points didn't have any impact on the end result, but for the experienced Pan Lin, he felt like calculating points through kills would be more exciting and fun.

I'll give them my recommendation later.

Pan Lin quietly thought to himself. The new tournament format was being tested in the Challenger League. The Alliance was currently taking feedback. As part of the broadcast team, he had quite a lot of authority in this matter. Much of the competitive format was established for the convenience of the broadcast. For this season's potential change, the broadcast had put a good amount of effort into pushing for it.

These thoughts flashed through Pan Lin's head. There was still a match going on. He couldn't spend his time thinking about his recommendation at the moment.

Shen Jian's Successive Strike was killed. Even though the sixth player Wang Ze immediately loaded in, he would appear in the support zone. He would be in the same situation as Sun Xiang and Shen Jian; he needed time to arrive.

For now, Excellent Era was at a one player disadvantage, but if the situation was calmly looked at, not many would think that Happy was at an advantage.

Excellent Era had one fewer player, but One Autumn Leaf and Combat Form had finally arrived. As for Happy, to make up for their insufficient DPS, they did a character switch. While they had killed Successive Strike, they left behind a hidden danger: Happy didn't have a healer right now.

Admittedly, Lord Grim had healing capabilities, but for a team competition, his healing would be like trying to extinguish a burning cart with a cup of water; it barely counted as support.

Even though Excellent Era lost a player, it was a good time for them to make a strong counterattack.　　

Xiao Shiqin obviously wouldn't miss this opportunity. He had already made preparations for this situation. He couldn't do anything about Lord Grim's healing, but this was their opportunity to give Happy a heavy blow. If Ye Xiu wasn't able to control the situation well enough, it was very possible that Happy would be swept away by Excellent Era in one swoop because Excellent Era's ace player Sun Xiang and his One Autumn Leaf had arrived.

Shattering the Lands!　　

Sun Xiang possessed the spirit of an ace player. One of his teammates had been killed. It didn't matter how strong or confident Excellent Era was, this irrefutable reality was a blow to their morale. The ace player needed to stand out at times like this to turn the tides through a brilliant performance to win back their morale.

As a result, Sun Xiang started off immediately with a high-level skill. One Autumn Leaf leapt high in the air with Evil Annihilation raised up and jumped directly into the middle of Team Happy.

"Scatter!"

Ye Xiu shouted in the team chat.　　

The oppressiveness of Battle God One Autumn Leaf wasn't something any of Team Happy's characters could contend against. The ghost boundaries set up by One Inch Ash wouldn't be effective. Shattering the Lands was an AoE attack. In addition to the possible Landslide effect from Evil Annihilation, he would turn the sky and earth upside down despite being trapped within the ghost boundaries.

Just this single move was enough to force Team Happy to scatter. This was the might of the number one character in the Alliance, Battle God One Autumn Leaf.

The other members of Excellent Era had already started coordinating their attacks with One Autumn Leaf. Qiu Fei's Combat Form followed One Autumn Leaf like a shadow. Excellent Era had never played with dual Battle Mages before. The previous matches hadn't showed anything particularly special about it. It was only until this match did hints of it appear. Qiu Fei's Combat Form was like wingman for One Autumn Leaf. His attacks were a guide for One Autumn Leaf, filling in any holes. This was a very famous playstyle called Shadow Play. However, in the era of stars, it was rarely seen nowadays. Of the 24 All Stars, not one of them were shadows.

It could be said that shadows did the dirty work. They were oftentimes the ones that covered up the mistakes made by ace players. With them, the ace players would perform more brilliantly, but the existence of the shadow was likely to be ignored. Who would be willing to be that type of player? As it turned out, being an invisible shadow also required a very high level of skill. Not just anyone was qualified to take on that role, so very few teams used it because there was no one appropriate for the role.

But Qiu Fei? His skill was solid. A year and a half after Ye Xiu's departure from Excellent Era, he could already contend with Ye Xiu 1v1. He was also a new rookie with no name, so no one was surprised that he was pushed into this position.

But then again, this decision also depended on the team's needs and style.

Tiny Herb and Blue Rain also had incredible rookies with the same class as their team's ace players. However, neither Gao Yingjie nor Lu Hanwen were appointed as shadows for their Gods. They had their own place on the stage. They worked hard to demonstrate their skill and continued to shine brightly.

Neither choice was right or wrong. Objectively speaking, Excellent Era's ace player Sun Xiang was younger. Sun Xiang wasn't like Tiny Herb's Wang Jiexi or Blue Rain's Huang Shaotian who needed to train a successor soon. Sun Xiang was still rising, so a shadow by his side was a very good push forward. The advantages of having a better ace player didn't need to be mentioned. Compared to Tiny Herb and Blue Rain, Excellent Era was very suitable for a Shadow Play. It was just that using Qiu Fei as a stepping stone for Sun Xiang was a bit regrettable.

Then again, gold always shines. Shadows were easily ignored by the general crowd, but they wouldn't escape the eyes of professionals. This was also why the Shadow Play was difficult to maintain. Outstanding shadows were too easily recruited. Just the promise of no longer having to be a shadow was more than enough. If they could have their own stage to shine, who would be willing to remain as a stepping stone?

Qiu Fei was a diligent and steadfast player, so he didn't reject the team's choice. He took on the burden willingly. However, through the Challenger League, Sun Xiang didn't need a shadow to crush his opponents. For Excellent Era, this was their first formidable opponent for their newly formed duo.

But just before, under everyone's watch, the two of them had failed to catch a single player. The two of them had targeted Lord Grim, yet Lord Grim was able to escape from their grasp so easily. Then, Lord Grim ran over to help his teammates kill one of Excellent Era's players.

From how long it took for Lord Grim and how long it took for the two of them to reach the battlefield, it could be seen just how cleanly Ye Xiu was able to escape from them. If not for Xiao Shiqin noticing the change in tactics early on, the two of them might have still been searching for Lord Grim!

It easy to think of what Sun Xiang was feeling like after being played around like that. He had been preparing to show his superiority over Ye Xiu in this team competition. Not yelling at Qiu Fei to move to the side was already a huge improvement for him.

After losing to Ye Xiu in the group arena, Sun Xiang underwent a huge transformation. For the sake of victory, he started to reach a compromise. He abandoned his previous attitude towards his reputation. Victory. Right now, the only desire in his heart was victory.　

The team competition had only just started and Excellent Era was losing. If this was the previous Sun Xiang, he would have become irritated long ago. But now, he was able to maintain his calm and follow Xiao Shiqin's arrangements.

Shattering the Land scattered Team Happy's formation. Qiu Fei's Combat Form seized the opportunity to charge forward. Shattering the Land didn't have that aspect to it, so it was up to him to make up for it.

With this duo joining the battle, Team Excellent Era exploded with fighting strength. Team Happy scattered, but didn't show any plans to counterattack. They clearly didn't want to clash directly with Excellent Era here, even if they had the numbers advantage.

"Focus Dawn Rifle!" Xiao Shiqin gave a new target.

Wu Chen was someone who had never appeared on stage before this point. Xiao Shiqin picked him not because he was underestimating Wu Chen or because Wu Chen was the most convenient target, it was because he recognized that this person was biggest hidden danger to Excellent Era.　

Launcher!

He had noticed it earlier. Was there any class more fitting to partner with Ye Xiu? His Battle Mage and Su Mucheng's Launcher were titled Best Partners every year in the Alliance before his retirement.

Wu Chen couldn't compare to Su Mucheng whether it was in individual skill or character strength, but with Ye Xiu by his side, his fighting strength was vastly improved. In the entire Glory scene, no one understood how to coordinate with Launchers better than Ye Xiu. Even though right now, Wu Chen's Dawn Rifle was mainly just being guided around, Xiao Shiqin didn't think his value stopped there. From Wu Chen's careful harassment to his solid fundamentals that he showed when interrupting their Cleric, Xiao Shiqin was certain that under Ye Xiu's lead, Wu Chen would show even greater potential. And this had never been seen before this match. This sort of unknown variable made Xiao Shiqin feel uneasy. He decided that it would be best to hurry up and get rid of him before his potential erupted. 

Sun Xiang had originally planned on targeting Lord Grim, but then he saw Xiao Shiqin's orders…...

Victory! For the sake of victory!

Sun Xiang grinded his teeth as he went against his wishes. When Shattering the Lands ended, he immediately had One Autumn Leaf rush towards Dawn Rifle.

Xiao Shiqin wasn't just someone who ordered people around. All sorts of gadgets poured out from his Life Extinguisher and marched towards Dawn Rifle like an army.